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A Labour minister was grilled on GB News after she denied the government was delaying the national grooming gangs inquiry. The interview followed criticism over Labour’s efforts to establish the inquiry. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has set out new proposals for a judge-led inquiry to replace the delayed investigation. Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith was questioned by host Ellie Costello on GB News about the topic and asked why the inquiry had been delayed.

Ellie asked: “Six months on from the Government formally announcing this national inquiry into grooming gangs, we still don’t have a chair and we still don’t have the terms of reference laid out.

“Why is this Government dragging its feet on this?

Baroness Smith commented: “It isn’t. We’re working hard on making sure that that inquiry is set up and works along the sorts of bases that you’ve talked about, identifying the nature of people who were responsible for this absolute abomination, including religious and ethnic backgrounds. The Government has been very, very clear about that.”

She added: “The last Tory Government had a considerable amount of time to put in place the recommendations of the Child Safeguarding Review. They failed to do that.”

At one moment, Ellie asked brutally: “But what is taking so long? You’ve had six months. There’s still no chair. There’s still no terms of reference.

“There are people saying it felt as though you were being dragged to the table, kicking and screaming to even get a national inquiry in the first place.

“And now there is a theory that you’re deploying blocking tactics to try and push this past the next General Election.”

Baroness Smith swiftly replied: “No, that’s completely wrong. And what’s more, we’ve taken action on a range of other recommendations from the child safeguarding inquiry that the Tories chose to sit on for years when they were actually in Government.

“It’s no point now being outraged in opposition for Kemi Badenoch. She could have acted when she was in Government. She didn’t.”